The Stay-Another-Day program in Luang Prabang is set up to provide awareness of local tradition and customs while supporting truly local businesses. It suggests where you can go to see how silk is actually made - from silkworms, cocoon, weaving into thread, dyeing of thread, and weaving into cloth - scarfs, table runners, clothes, pillow cases, etc. We actually visited one of these weaving shops. It was very interesting as was the natural paper making studios. If interested you could take a 3 day class and weave something yourself.
Then there are places to do tastings of all the local delicacies - like crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, snake, crocodile, frogs and the list goes on. We had hoped to try this out but they we only open limited times of the day and - well - we just never made it. We did however run into an Australian family who we kept running into through out the town. They tried just about everything. Their daughter, who I would guess was 13 or so, apparently was the brave one. Braver than I would have been I'm sure.
There were several other programs but the one I liked the best was Big Brother Mouse. This was a home-grown literacy program geared to teaching young children to read. They halve self-published books in Laos and English and are trying to make reading fun for the kids. I was told that in Laos people do not just read for pleasure and they are perplexed by tourists sitting around reading books all the time. Since the kids were in school I wasn't able to join the program to read to the children. Instead I spent a few hours volunteering so that locals could practice their English. One student was very prepared with questions about what things said in an English magazine and where certain universities were - he had a catalog for studying abroad and was very curious.
Later I spoke with 2 young men who had studied as monks for several years. They explained to me some of the basic customs surrounding monks - like women should never touch the monk, you should never step in his shadow and you were to bow your head as they passed. We also had an interesting dialogue about children that went a little like this: "how many children do you have?" "I don't have any children." "Oh, how sad. Who will take care of you when you get old." I thought to myself, if I had a child what guarantee is there that they would take care of me...they would have their own life...etc., such an American custom. But instead I replied: "Hopefully my niece and nephews." The conversation went on, "Is there something wrong with your husband's sperm? You know you can always buy one{a child that is}" "Oh, you mean adopt." "Adopt, is that the word, write it down for me please." And, my job was done I had taught them a new English word. As our journey continues through countries with such strong family ties something to consider ...maybe we need to devise a story about our "children" in order to not subjected to such pity. Of course that would require a lot of scripting, doctored photos, etc... too much work, we'll have to deal with the pity.
